Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-03-28

one, that miserable ship will not weather
it. Aha! Going into the ark! Well,
that is too good TO keep. Here, fellows,
have you heard the news? This man is
going into tee ark" Under this artillery
of scorn the mans good resolution
perished.
And so there are hundreds kept out by
the fear of derision. The young man
asks himself: "What would they say at
the store Tomorrow morning if should
become q Christian? When l go down to
the clubhouse they would shout: Here
comes that new Christian. Suppose you
will not have anything to do with US now.
Suppose you are praying now. Get down
on your knees and let US hear you pray.
Come, now, give US touch. Will not
do it, eh? Pretty Christian you are |"
Is it not the fear of being laughed at that
keeps you out of the kingdom Of God?
Which of these scorners will help you at
the last? When you lie down on dying
pillow, which of them will be there? In
the day Of eternity, will they bail you out?
My friends and neighbors, come in right
away. Come in through Christ, the wide
door-the door that swings out toward
you. Come in and be saved. Come and
be happy. "The spirit and the bride say,
come" Room in the ark! Room in the
ark!
But do not come alone. The text in
vites you to bring your family. "Come,
thou and all thy house" That means
your wife and your children. You can
not drive them in. If Noah had tried to
drive the pigeons and the doves into the
ark, he would only have scattered them.
Some parents are not wise about these
things. They make iron rules about Sab
baths, and they force the catechism down
the throat as they would hold the Child's
nose and force doWn dose of rhubarb
and calomel. You can not drive your
children into the ark. You can draw your
children to Christ, but you can not coerce
them. The Cross was lifted, not to
drive, but to draw. "If be lifted up,
will draw all men unto me-" AS the sun
draws up the drops OF morning dew, SO
the sun of righteousness exhaIes the tears
of repentance.
"Come thou and all thy house into the
ark" Be sure that you bring your hus
band and wife with you. How would
Noah have felt if, when he heard the rain
pattering on the roof of the ark, he knew
that his wife was outside in the storm?
No; she went with him. And yet some
of you are on the ship "outward bound"
for heaven, but your companion is un-
sheltered. You remember the day when
the marriage-ring was set. Nothing has
yet been able to break it. Sickness came
and the finger shrank, but the ring staid
on. The TWAIN stood alone above
chiId's grave, and the dark
mouth of the tomb swallowed up q thou
sand hopes; but the ring dropped not
into the open grave. Dayss of poverty
came, and the hand did many d har3
days work, but the rubbing of the work
against the ring only made it shine
brighter. Shall that ring ever be lost?
Will the iron cIang of the ,sepulcher gate
crush it forever? I pray God that you
who have been married on earth may be
together in heaven. Oh! by the quiet
bliss OF your earthly home; by the babe's
cradle; by all the vows CT that day when
you started life together, l beg you to
see to it that you both get into the ark.
Come in, and bring your wife or your
| husband with you-nOt by fretting ABOUT
religion, or dingdonging them about re-
| ligion, but by 8 consistent life, and by e
compelling prayer that shall bring the
throne of God down into your bedroom.
Brooklyn and get into heaven than live
fifty years in the finest house on Madison
square, and wake up at last and find that
one of you, for all eternity, is outside the
ark Go home tonight; lock the door
of your room; take up the Bible and read
| it together, and then kneel down and
commend your souls to Him who has
watched you all these years; and, before
you rise, there will be huttering of
wings over your head, angel crying to
angel: "Behold, they pray"
But this does not include all your fam
lily. Bring the children, too. God bless
the dear children! What would our
homes be without them? We may have
done much for them. They have done
more fer u. What a saIve for a wounded
heart there is in the soft palm of child's
hand. Did harp or flate ever have such
music as there is in child's "goOd-
night?" From our coarse, rough life, the
angels Of God are often driven back; but
VINO comes into the nursery without feel
ing that angels are lowering around?
| They VINO die in infancy go into glory, but
you are expecting your children to grow
up in this world. Is it not a question,
then, that rings through ali the corridors,
and windjngs, and heights, and depths of
your soul what is to become of your sons
and daughters for time and for eternity?
"Oh!" you say, 81 mean to see that they
have good manners" Very well. 81
mean TO dress them well if l have myself
to go shabby" Very good 81 shall
give them an education, and l shall leave
them fortune" Very well. But is
that all? Don't you mean to take them
into the ark? Don't you know that the
storm is coming, and that out of Christ
there is no safety, no pardon, no hope, no
heaven?
How to get them in? Go IN yourself.
If Noah had staid out do you not suppose
that mis- sons, Shem, Ham, and Japhet,
would have staid out? Your sons and
daughters will be apt to do just as you
do. Reject Christ yourself, and the prob
ability is that your children will reject
Him.
An account was taken of the religious
condition of families in a certain district.
La the families of pious parents, two
thirds of the children were Christians.
In the families where the parents were
ungOdly, only one-twelfth OF the children
were Christians. Responsible as you are
for their temporal existence, YOU are also